


Six of Cups

by ScaredyCrow



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Clones, Family, Fluff, Found Family (Sort Of), Gen, Nonbinary Character, Not Phantom Planet Compliant, Trans Danny, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 13:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16598618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScaredyCrow/pseuds/ScaredyCrow
Summary: After two years of exploring the world, Dani comes back to Amity Park. Danny offers her a place to stay, but that means telling his parents about the existence of his clone. Now they will all have to adapt to this new definition of "family" they find themselves in.





	Six of Cups

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've written since middle school, so go easy on me.
> 
> A word of warning: Danny and Dani have a conversation about gender at one point, which includes a brief discussion of Danny's deadname. Also, even though Dani is nonbinary, she is still exploring her identity at this point and uses she/her pronouns. Don't come accuse me of chickening out about this - I am a nonbinary person who used she/her pronouns for quite a while when I was still figuring out what to do about pronouns. There are also plenty of nonbinary people who use binary pronouns for various reasons.

Danny took a deep breath as he sat across the kitchen table from his parents. They both looked at him with a mix of curiosity and concern, but stayed silent as he gathered his thoughts.

“I have to tell you guys something,” Danny began, “And your first reaction is going to be to interrupt or not believe me, but I need you to listen until the end.”

Maddie and Jack shared a look for a moment. When they turned back, Maddie smiled reassuringly and said, “Danny, we trust you enough to know that you wouldn’t lie about something you’re so serious about. Whatever it is, we’ll believe you.” Jack nodded firmly but remained silent, uncharacteristically serious.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “I uh, I don’t really know how to start. I guess, um… Mom, you already know this first part, but,” he turns to look more at Jack, “Vlad Masters has been obsessed with mom for a long time. He’s been trying to find a way to split you two up for years so he can get with her.”

Jack started to say something, probably a denial, but Maddie put her hand over his, stopping him. They made eye contact and seemed to communicate silently. Maddie nodded minutely with a regretful expression, seeming to confirm Danny’s statement and apologize for not telling Jack earlier. Jack’s expression flickered between confusion, distress, and anger before he seemed to push this realization to the back burner for the moment. He nodded tightly and focused his attention back on Danny.

Seeing his chance, Danny hurried to continue explaining. “I think, subconsciously, he realized a few years ago that he’ll never be able to get with mom, so he switched some of his efforts somewhere else. He wants a son. Specifically, he wants me to be his son, and he started trying to get me to, I don’t know, run away from home and go live with him?”

Both of his parents were starting to look like they were seconds away from hunting Vlad down and murdering him on the spot, so Danny quickly moved on to the next part of the story.

“He realized pretty quickly that he wasn’t going to get ahold of me any more than he was going to get ahold of mom. That’s when things got… weirder. He’s apparently spent some of the past few decades studying, um, human cloning.”

At this point, Maddie began to look far more concerned. She started to say something, but this time it was Jack’s turn to squeeze her hand and remind her to let Danny finish.

Danny wasn’t meeting their eyes anymore, instead staring up at the ceiling with an unreadable expression. “Her name is Danielle,” he said, “but she prefers Dani, with an ‘i’. She looks like she’s about fourteen, but she’s only two years old.” At this point, Danny looked back at them with an intense, almost desperate gaze. “I helped her escape Vlad, but. She’s just a kid, you know? She doesn’t have anywhere to go.”

Jack and Maddie looked… beyond shocked. Something like grief and fury and horror mingled on each of their faces. It took several moments before either of them spoke.

“Can… can we meet her?” Jack asked in the quietest voice Danny had ever heard him use.

Danny sprung out of his chair the moment the words left Jack’s mouth. “Yes! I mean, uh, yes, she’s um, up in my room.” Here he looked kind of sheepish at admitting he had let a relative stranger into the house without telling them. Jack and Maddie both stood up without a word, so Danny led the way upstairs.

When they got to his door, Danny knocked once before opening it to give Dani a heads up. With the door fully opened, the three of them could see Dani’s back as she sat at his desk, playing DOOMED on his computer.

“I hope you don’t mind I logged into my account,” she said without turning around.

At the sight and sound of her, Maddie let out a quiet, anguished sound. She leaned back into Jack, who had made a sound like all the breath had been knocked out of him. At this, Dani finally paused her game and turned around.

She looked mostly the same as she had when Danny helped stabilize her. A little older, a little taller. (But not too much taller. Danny hadn’t hit his big growth spurt until junior year, so she still had some waiting to do.) She was more tan than Danny was, and too thin. But she looked sturdier and more confident than she had last time, which gave Danny no small sense of relief. Travelling had been good for her overall; it had let her get comfortable in her own skin.

He could admit to himself though, in the privacy of his own head, that her thinness worried him.

“Oh,” Dani said as she took in the sight of Danny’s parents. “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. I’m Danielle.”

* * *

Things were… different after that. It was the summer before Danny’s senior year of high school, so they had plenty of time to adjust to the change in their family.

They spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get Danielle the documents that would make her, officially and legally, a person. The technical part ended up being very simple, as Maddie sheepishly confessed that she had an old college friend who could forge some documents for them.

The hard part, as it turned out, was coming up with the story. They thought of claiming Dani was the daughter of Maddie’s sister, Alicia, but Dani insisted that she keep the name Fenton. In the end it was Jazz, who was home from college for the summer, who suggested they claim that Jack’s father had a daughter much later in his life. The story would be that she lived with him until he passed away several years ago, at which point she was passed between various family members until she arrived at the Fentons’. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was enough.

Once her papers were all properly forged and filed, the next step was getting Dani into school. Even Danny agreed that socializing with kids her age (“My age? But I’m two.” “Har har, Dani. You know what we mean.”) would be good for her.

The whole family took turns tutoring Dani in the sorts of things she would need to know for her freshman year of high school. Although her brain was as fully formed as any other fourteen year old’s and she had learned a lot in her two years of existence, things like US history and algebra were beyond the scope of her knowledge. However, with three certified geniuses and one person who knew almost exactly how her brain worked all tutoring her, she made incredible progress.

Most nights, Sam and Tucker came over to hang out and watch various shows and movies. Tucker called it “an introduction to pop culture,” but mostly it was just an excuse to watch anime. Dani ended up liking Kiki’s Delivery Service the best, but she was happy to watch other things when it was someone else’s turn to choose that night’s movie.

By the time school came around, Dani almost felt ready for it.

* * *

Danny and Dani were sitting on the floor of the living room, quietly doing homework. Every now and then, Dani would ask for help with hers and Danny would explain the concept her teacher was trying to get across. He liked being able to help her, especially since he remembered how much of a struggle it was when he was learning those things.

Maddie entered the room carrying a platter of cookies. “Hey kids,” she greeted. “How’s studying going? You’ve been at it for a while.”

“Pretty good. I think I can manage a B on Lancer’s test on tuesday,” Danny replied.

“Danny’s been helping me understand cell division,” Dani added.

Maddie beamed. “Oh, good! Let me know if either of you need any of my help.” She set the platter down on the living room table, within reach of both teens. “I made some cookies if you want any. There’s enough for you each to have three, but you might want to save one or two for after dinner.”

Both teens eagerly reached for the cookies. Oddly enough, they had discovered that Danny preferred the chewy ones while Dani preferred the crunchy ones. Having already anticipated this, Maddie had included a mix of both.

“Thanks mom!” Danny said, mouth already full of cookie.

Dani hurriedly swallowed before speaking. “Yeah, thanks m-Maddie!” Her face made a complicated, conflicted expression before she covered it up with a bright grin.

Maddie smiled reassuringly at her before waving and exiting the room. Probably to defend the rest of the cookies from Jack, judging by the loud thump and the sound of scurrying they heard when she entered the kitchen. As soon as she turned away, Dani’s expression fell.

Danny finished his cookie and glanced sideways at her. “Do you, uh, want to talk ab-”

“Not really.”

“Okay, well,” he said, “I’ll just say a few things and then we can pretend I didn’t.” When Dani didn’t respond, he continued. “They don’t care if you call them Maddie and Jack or mom and dad. They know it’s hard, and they’d never dream of making you do something you’re not comfortable with. You don’t have to force yourself.”

She didn’t respond, so Danny let the subject drop.

But a few quiet minutes later, Dani spoke. “I just feel like… They’ve done so much for me. And genetically, I am their daughter. It feels ungrateful to not call them mom and dad.”

Danny thought about that. They’d had similar discussions before, but Dani had never mentioned why she felt so unsure of what to call Jack and Maddie before. Danny had assumed it was because she had conflicted feelings about the concept of ‘parents’ after Vlad. “If Jazz were here, she would say something about how blood relations don’t necessarily make someone your family. Or, I mean, just because they’re your parents genetically speaking, doesn’t mean you have to think of them as your parents.”

Seeing Dani’s questioning look, he continued. “You introduced yourself as my cousin when we first met, right? Why not think of them as your aunt and uncle?”

She must not have ever thought of it like that before, because she lapsed into silence for a long time. Danny went back to his homework to give her some time to think.

* * *

The first time Dani called her ‘Aunt Maddie,’ Maddie dropped the gadget she’d been working on with a clatter. Danny could tell she tried not to make a big deal out of it for fear of scaring Dani off, but he saw how overjoyed her smile was.

When Dani first called him ‘Uncle Jack,’ Jack froze for a heartbeat before rushing off to the lab, blaming those gosh darn ghosts for getting ectoplasm in his eyes.

* * *

It was a Thursday afternoon in October, and Sam and Tucker both had things to do after school. Danny and Dani were slowly meandering home, taking their time while they enjoyed the cool fall weather.

They had both been quiet for a while before Dani spoke up. “Hey Danny?”

“Yeah?” he responded, glancing at her as they walked side by side.

“I, um,” she started, “what does being a boy feel like? I mean, what does it mean when you don’t really… feel like a girl?”

Danny paused. Dani… Dani knew, right? The reason why she had formed as a girl despite being genetically identical to Danny himself? He knew for a fact that he and Jazz had discussed gender things in front of her… And he had definitely taken a T shot or two in front of her. But… Dani was only two years old, really. It was very possible that she didn’t understand the significance of those things.

“Dani, do you know why Vlad named you Danielle?” he asked.

Dani looked at him in confusion. “Because… it’s the feminine version of Daniel? And he’s a fruitloop like that?”

He offered his hand for a high five for that, which she graciously accepted. “Sick. But no. I assume he chose Danielle because it’s similar to Daniella. The name I was born with,” he clarified.

This time it was Dani’s turn to pause. Realization struck after a moment and she said, “Oh. That’s why I- And you- Oh.” They were both silent for a few blocks as she mulled this over. Then, “Is it hard for you to look at me, knowing it’s what you would have looked like?”

This time Danny stopped in his tracks. He faced Dani and put his hands on her shoulders, making sure to meet her eyes. “When I look at you, I see a kid who I love and cherish, who’s funny and clever and a huge smartass. A kid who’s braver, bolder, and more independent than I could ever be. Yes, you’re a clone of me. But you are your own unique person. We’ve had different experiences and they’ve shaped us into different people. I don’t see ‘could have beens’ when I look at you.”

Dani looked like she was struggling not to deny what he’d just said. It had been an uphill battle to help her learn to see herself as her own person and not just ‘Danny’s clone,’ but they were making progress. Danny let go of her shoulders and gave her a few moments to collect herself.

“Is it,” she began with a nervous expression after a few seconds, “is it okay if I’m… not a girl or a boy?”

Danny smiled reassuringly at her. “Of course. You’re allowed to be whatever you want to be.”

Her self-confidence, or perhaps the mask of self-confidence she tended to wear when she was trying to be brave, came back after this reassurance. They resumed walking home, and while Danny was unlocking the front door, she said, “I think I’m going to keep going by Dani and she/her for a while. Give myself some time to think about things.”

“Take all the time you need,” he said, holding the front door open for her.

* * *

Two ghosts raced through the night. For once there were no hostile ghosts to take down and no hunters to evade, and they gladly took the opportunity to relax. The smaller one finally caught up to the larger, smacking them on the shoulder before turning and speeding off in another direction. The larger ghost pivoted to give chase, grinning ear-to-ear. Their laughter echoed around them.

Things weren’t perfect. Life was messy, and difficult, and often mere seconds away from disaster. But really, imperfection was what the Fentons did best.

**Author's Note:**

> So there we go. The first fic I've written in almost five years.
> 
> I might write another chapter of this because I'd like to write more scenes from after Danny graduates high school. My aim was to write about how Danny and Dani's relationship grows and changes over time (from original and clone, to cousin and cousin, to brother and sibling, maybe even to something like father and child), but that didn't quite happen here. But for all intents and purposes, this fic is complete.


End file.
